The Times Now anchor Arnab Goswami, an unapologetic propagandist of Prime Narendra Modi and the BJP and from all appearances also of former IB chief and now National Security Adviser (NSA) to the Prime Minister Ajit Doval as well, has made a big song and dance about former Union Home Minister purportedly changing the affidavit in Ishrat Jehan case allegedly under directions from Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

We don’t know what lies this BJP activist passing himself off as a newsperson, is spreading because once the matter pertains to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) we know that it has for long been a communal outfit, in cahoots with the RSS even during successive Congress or other non BJP regimes, often times in full knowledge of the functionaries of such governments like former Law Minister H R Bhardwaj. We also know that a large number of journalists either directly collect their monthly pay cheque from the IB media handler or secure favours like paid holidays abroad for them all with family entourage. For smaller minions the intelligence agencies merely pick up their bills at the Press Club and the list contains some well-known journalists, many of whom appear on TV channels almost daily.

There is also the RSS which patronises favourite hacks who toe their line and while now with Narendra Modi , the Pracharak as the Indian Nation’s master, many of them have emerged from the closet, the process of coopting newsmen into the parivar was started by none other than Lal Kishan Advani when he presided over the Information and Broadcasting ministry in the Janata Party dispensation four decades ago.

But we are digressing from the main issue of Ishrat Jehan and Arnab’s so called expose. Goswami has been carrying on this campaign justifying the cold blooded murder of this unarmed teenager from Mumbra Devi in Mumbai. Not a word about what would the poor child have gone through at the hands of those brutes before being shot dead in cold blood. After all the same set of people had no compunction in raping before killing the middle aged Kausar Bibi the wife of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, not long before the fake encounter involving Ishrat Jehan and others.

It is now out in the open that the then IB incharge of that region Rajendra Kumar was an active participant in that killing, from providing Gujarat police an unlisted murder weapon, to the actual killing. It is also known that this man was a close confidant of Ajit Doval. So it is mainly Doval who is the puppeteer behind this Arnab Goswami show and the purpose is to shield Rajendra Kumar. But it does not make much sense if the object of the whole campaign were to save the skin of Rajendra Kumar alone. There is definitely more to it.

Former IB chief Asif Ibrahim, currently the Prime Minister’s special envoy and trouble shooter with the Muslims in India and abroad, being privy to a lot of information not in public domain was smart enough to foresee two things. One that Modi was returning to power in 2014 and therefore it was time to switch sides and betray the UPA government which broke all conventions in putting a Muslim in the IB chief’s chair, and two that the best way to endear oneself to the rising star was to save the skin of Rajendra Kumar and so before the UPA went out of power he started backing Rajendra Kumar and lo and behold has been more than adequately rewarded. He in turn is serving Modi well by organizing the international Sufi conference and then taking a Muslim delegation to the Prime Minister. Asif is a man of action and therefore wait for more in the coming days.

Returning to the Ishrat affair, it just proves how important it has been for Modi and Amit Shah to digress from the main theme that an unarmed teenager was killed in cold blood. There is no justification for this, even if Ujjwal Nikam, also honoured for the same, made the most laughable effort to coax that 26/11 Mumbai attack chief instrument, Daood Gilani, alias David Coleman Headley, to name Ishrat as an LeT operative, in return for being generously pardoned in advance.

And now Nirmala Sitaraman and other standard bearers of Modi including our very own Arnab Goswami, are bending backwards to prove Chidambaram revised his views at Sonia’s instance. Assuming that what the BJP leaders are alleging is correct, should Sonia be declared a “Ghaddar” and a Desh Drohi” and burnt at the stakes for committing such blasphemy or be commended and eulogized for coming to the rescue of Ishrat’s hapless family? Is it something to be embarrassed about or to feel vindicated? After all Sonia was the party president and UPA chairperson and it was well within her right to enunciate the party and alliance policy and ensure that justice was done to the bereaved family of that poor sole breadwinner of her family.

In the eyes of Arnab and Nirmala and Sambit Patra Sonia, and their fellow travelers Sonia is a betrayer. But to those who are still indignant over this fake encounter and want the real truth to come out and would be happy to see the culprits of this crime adequately punished in accordance with the law of the land, it was heartening to discover that Sonia took personal interest in trying to secure justice for that girl’s family in the face of such stiff odds as is evident now what with the North Block infested by the Sanghis like Mani and Pillai even in the UPA era.

As for Chidambaram, he has many follies starting with his arrogance but there are two things one can safely take a bet about him. One, that being a non-Brahmin from Tamil Nadu, he doesn’t suffer from the typical Brahmin disdain of the Dalits and the Backwards. Two, that he is thoroughly secular. That is why perhaps he proved to be the best Home Minister the country has seen in independent India and I am saying this after giving the subject some thought. So it is facile to claim that mere persuasion from Sonia Gandhi changed his mind. It is quite likely that he may have not paid much attention to the first affidavit of the Home ministry and it may have passed under his pen cursorily but when things came to his notice he did make amends and what’s wrong with that?

By Faraz Ahmad

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